JEAN PIAGET

History of Piaget's Theory of Cognitive

Development
Piaget was born in Switzerland in the late 1800s and was a precocious
student, publishing his first scientific paper when he was just 11 years old.
His early exposure to the intellectual development of children came when he
worked as an assistant to Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon as they worked
to standardize their famous IQ test.

Piaget vs. Vygotsky

Piaget's theory differs in important ways from those of Lev Vygotsky,
another influential figure in the field of child development. Vygotsky
acknowledged the roles that curiosity and active involvement play in
learning, but placed greater emphasis on society and culture.

Piaget felt that development is largely fueled from within, while Vygotsky
believed that external factors (such as culture) and people (such as parents,
caregivers, and peers) play a more significant role.

Much of Piaget's interest in the cognitive development of children was inspired by

his observations of his own nephew and daughter. These observations reinforced
his budding hypothesis that children's minds were not merely smaller versions of
adult minds.

Until this point in history, children were largely treated simply as smaller versions
of adults. Piaget was one of the first to identify that the way that children think is
different from the way adults think.

Piaget proposed that intelligence grows and develops through a series of

stages. Older children do not just think more quickly than younger children.
Instead, there are both qualitative and quantitative differences between the
thinking of young children versus older children.

Based on his observations, he concluded that children were not less

intelligent than adults—they simply think differently. Albert Einstein called
Piaget's discovery "so simple only a genius could have thought of it."

Piaget's stage theory describes the cognitive development of

children. Cognitive development involves changes in cognitive process and
abilities.2
 In Piaget's view, early cognitive development involves processes based upon actions and later
progresses to changes in mental operations.

SENSORIMOTOR STAGE

During the sensorimotor stage, children go through a period of dramatic

growth and learning. As kids interact with their environment, they
continually make new discoveries about how the world works.

The cognitive development that occurs during this period takes place over a
relatively short time and involves a great deal of growth. Children not only
learn how to perform physical actions such as crawling and walking; they
also learn a great deal about language from the people with whom they
interact. Piaget also broke this stage down into substages. Early
representational thought emerges during the final part of the sensorimotor
stage.

Piaget believed that developing object permanence or object constancy, the

understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be seen, was
an important element at this point of development.

Overview
During this initial phase of development, children utilize skills and abilities
they were born with (such as looking, sucking, grasping, and listening) to
learn more about the environment. In other words, they experience the
world and gain knowledge through their senses and motor movements.
Through trial-and-error, children discover more about the world around
them.

Piaget chose to call this stage the 'sensorimotor' stage because it is through
the senses and motor abilities that infants gain a basic understanding of the
world around them. The abilities that an infant is born with—sight, hearing,
smell, taste, and touch—combined with physical capabilities that continue to
develop—including touching, grasping, and tasting—allow infants to interact
and build awareness of themselves and what is around them. 

As children interact with their environments, they go through an astonishing

amount of cognitive growth in a relatively short period of time—the
sensorimotor stage lasts from birth to approximately age 2.

SubstageS
As any parent or caregiver can attest, a great deal of learning and
development happens during the first two years of a child's life. The
sensorimotor stage can be divided into six separate sub-stages that are
characterized by the development of a new skill:

Object Permanence
According to Piaget, developing object permanence is one of the most
important accomplishments at the sensorimotor stage of development.
Object permanence is a child's understanding that objects continue to exist
even though they cannot be seen or heard.1

Imagine a game of peek-a-boo, for example. A very young infant will believe
that the other person or object has actually vanished and will act shocked or
startled when the object reappears. Older infants who understand object
permanence will realize that the person or object continues to exist even
when unseen.

This is a classic example of how, during this stage, an infant's knowledge of

the world is limited to his or her sensory perceptions and motor activities
and how behaviors are limited to simple motor responses caused by sensory
stimuli.

A Word From Verywell

The sensorimotor stage serves as an important base in development and
gives children the abilities they need as they progress into the next stage of
development. As children enter the next stage starting at around age two,
they begin developing symbolic thought allowing them to improve language,
imagination, and memory skills.

PREOPERATIONAL

During this stage, children begin to engage in symbolic play and learn to
manipulate symbols. However, Piaget noted that they do not yet understand
concrete logic.

Major Characteristics
The preoperational stage occurs roughly between the ages 2 and 7.
Language development is one of the hallmarks of this period. 1
Piaget noted that children in this stage do not yet understand concrete logic,
cannot mentally manipulate information, and are unable to take the point of
view of other people, which he termed egocentrism.
During the preoperational stage, children also become increasingly adept at
using symbols, as evidenced by the increase in playing and pretending. 1 For
example, a child is able to use an object to represent something else, such
as pretending a broom is a horse.

Role-playing also becomes important—children often play the roles of

"mommy," "daddy," "doctor," and many other characters.

Understanding Egocentrism
Piaget used a number of creative and clever techniques to study the mental abilities of children.
One of the famous techniques to demonstrate egocentrism involved using a three-dimensional
display of a mountain scene. Often referred to as the "Three Mountain Task," children are asked
to choose a picture that showed the scene they had observed.
Most children are able to do this with little difficulty. Next, children are asked to select a picture showing
what someone else would have observed when looking at the mountain from a different viewpoint.
Invariably, children almost always choose the scene showing their own view of the mountain scene.
According to Piaget, children experience this difficulty because they are unable to take on another
person's perspective.
Other researchers have also conducted similar experiments. In one study, children were shown a room in
a small dollhouse. Children were able to see in the dollhouse that a toy was hidden behind a piece of
furniture. Children were then taken into a full-size room that was an exact replica of the dollhouse. Very
young children did not understand to look behind the couch to find the toy, while slightly older children
immediately searched for the toy.

Understanding Conservation
Another well-known experiment involves demonstrating a child's understanding of conservation.
In one conservation experiment, equal amounts of liquid are poured into two identical containers.
The liquid in one container is then poured into a differently shaped cup, such as a tall and thin
cup or a short and wide cup. Children are then asked which cup holds the most liquid. Despite
seeing that the liquid amounts were equal, children almost always choose the cup that appears
fuller.

Piaget conducted a number of similar experiments on the conservation of number, length, mass, weight,
volume, and quantity. He found that few children showed any understanding of conservation prior to the
age of five.

Criticisms
As you might have noticed, much of Piaget's focus at this stage of development focused on what
children could not yet do. The concepts of egocentrism and conservation are both centered on
abilities that children have not yet developed; they lack the understanding that things look
different to other people and that objects can change in appearance while still maintaining the
same properties.

However, not everyone agrees with Piaget's assessment of children's abilities. Researcher Martin
Hughes, for example, argued that the reason that children failed at the three mountains task was
simply that they did not understand it. In an experiment that involved utilizing dolls, Hughes
demonstrated that children as young as age 4 were able to understand situations from multiple
points of view, suggesting that children become less egocentric at an earlier age than Piaget
believed.

CONCRETE OPERATIONAL STAGE

Thinking still tends to be very concrete, but children become much more logical and
sophisticated in their thinking during this stage of development.

While this is an important stage in and of itself, it also serves as an important transition between
earlier stages of development and the coming stage where kids will learn how to think more
abstractly and hypothetically.

Kids at this age become more logical about concrete and specific things, but they still struggle
with abstract ideas.
Understanding Logic
Piaget determined that children in the concrete operational stage were fairly good at the use of
inductive logic (inductive reasoning).2 Inductive logic involves going from a specific experience
to a general principle.

An example of inductive logic would be noticing that every time you are around a cat, you have
itchy eyes, a runny nose, and a swollen throat. You might then reason from that experience that
you are allergic to cats.

On the other hand, children at this age have difficulty using deductive logic, which involves
using a general principle to determine the outcome of a specific event. For example, a child
might learn that A=B, and B=C, but might still struggle to understand that A=C.

Understanding Reversibility
One important development in this stage is an understanding of reversibility or awareness that
actions can be reversed.3

 An example of this is being able to reverse the order of relationships between mental categories.
An example of reversibility is that a child might be able to recognize that his or her dog is a Labrador,
that a Labrador is a dog, and that a dog is an animal.
Another key development at this stage is the understanding that when something changes in shape or
appearance it is still the same, a concept known as conservation.
For example, imagine that you have two candy bars of the exact same size. You break one candy bar up
into two equally sized pieces and the other candy bar up into four smaller but equally sized sections.
A child who is in the concrete operational stage will understand that both candy bars are still the same
amount, whereas a younger child will believe that the candy bar that has more pieces is larger than the
one with only two pieces.

Kids Become Less Egocentric

The concrete operational stage is also marked by decreases in egocentrism. While children in the
preceding stage of development (the preoperational stage) struggle to take the perspective of
others, kids in the concrete stage are able to think about things the way that others see them.

In other words, kids are not only able to start thinking about how other people view and experience the
world, they even start to use this type of information when making decisions or solving problems. 

Observations
One of the key characteristics of the concrete-operational stage is the ability to focus on many
parts of a problem. While kids in the preoperational stage of development tend to focus on just
one aspect of a situation or problem, those in the concrete operational stage are able to engage in
what is known as "decentration." They are able to concentrate on many aspects of a situation at
the same time, which plays a critical role in the understanding of conservation.
This stage of cognitive development also serves as an important transition between the preoperational and
formal operational stages.1 Reversibility is an important step toward more advanced thinking, although at
this stage it only applies to concrete situations.

While kids at earlier stages of development are egocentric, those in the concrete operational
stage become more sociocentric. In other words, they are able to understand that other people
have their own thoughts. Kids at this point are aware that other people have unique perspectives,
but they might not yet be able to guess exactly how or what that other person is experiencing.

This growing ability to mentally manipulate information and think about the thoughts of others
will play a critical role in the formal operational stage of development when logic and abstract
thought become critical.

 Formal Operational Stage of Cognitive Development

At this point in development, thinking becomes much more sophisticated and advanced. Kids can think
about abstract and theoretical concepts and use logic to come up with creative solutions to problems.
Skills such as logical thought, deductive reasoning, and systematic planning also emerge during this
stage.2

Piaget's Research
Piaget tested formal operational thought in a few different ways. Two of the better-known tests
explored physical conceptualization and the abstraction of thought.3
Conceptualizing Balance
One task involved having children of different ages balance a scale by hooking weights on each
end. To balance the scale, the children needed to understand that both the heaviness of the
weights and distance from the center played a role.

Younger children around the ages of 3 and 5 were unable to complete the task because they did not
understand the concept of balance. Seven-year-olds knew that they could adjust the scale by placing
weights on each end, but failed to understand that where they put the weights was also important. By age
10, the kids considered location as well as weight but had to arrive at the correct answer using trial-and-
error.
It wasn't until around age 13 that children could use logic to form a hypothesis about where to place the
weights to balance the scale and then complete the task.3

Abstraction of Ideas
In another experiment on formal operational thought, Piaget asked children to imagine where
they would want to place a third eye if they had one.3 Younger children said that they would put
the imagined third eye in the middle of their forehead. Older children, however, were able to
come up with a variety of creative ideas about where to place this hypothetical eye and various
ways the eye could be used.
For example, an eye in the middle of one's hand would be useful for looking around corners. An eye at
the back of one's head could be helpful for seeing what is happening in the background.4

Creative ideas represent the use of abstract and hypothetical thinking, both important indicators
of formal operational thought.
Deductive Logic
Piaget believed that deductive reasoning becomes necessary during the formal operational stage.
Deductive logic requires the ability to use a general principle to determine a particular outcome.
Science and mathematics often require this type of thinking about hypothetical situations and
concepts.5
Abstract Thought
While children tend to think very concretely and specifically in earlier stages, the ability to think
about abstract concepts emerges during the formal operational stage. Instead of relying solely on
previous experiences, children begin to consider possible outcomes and consequences of actions.
This type of thinking is important in long-term planning.6
Problem-Solving
In earlier stages, children used trial-and-error to solve problems. During the formal operational
stage, the ability to systematically solve a problem in a logical and methodical way emerges.
Children at the formal operational stage of cognitive development are often able to plan quickly
an organized approach to solving a problem.7
Hypothetical-Deductive Reasoning
Piaget believed that what he referred to as "hypothetical-deductive reasoning" was essential at
this stage of intellectual development. At this point, teens become capable of thinking about
abstract and hypothetical ideas. They often ponder "what-if" type situations and questions and
can think about multiple solutions or possible outcomes.

While kids in the previous stage (concrete operations) are very particular in their thoughts, kids
in the formal operational stage become increasingly abstract in their thinking.7
As children gain greater awareness and understanding of their own thought processes, they
develop what is known as metacognition, or the ability to think about their thoughts as well as
the ideas of others.8